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Biography on George Carlin

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* * -------------------------------------------------
George Carlin * -------------------------------------------------
George Carlin

* introduction:
The stand-up comedian, whom I have chosen to focus my report on is former American comedian, social critic, actor and author, George Dennis Patrick Carlin. I am going to be exploring Carlin’s stand-up comedy and techniques of performing which he is very famously known for today. Carlin’s work usually consisted of stand-up monologues which included a strong content emphasis on social commentary and language. He was eminent for his personal thoughts on politics and religion, his knowledge on psychology and the English language and also his black comedy. * Early comedy career:
Carlin began his career as a conventional comedian and achieved a fair degree of success as a Bill Cosby anecdotist up until the 1960’s when he drastically changed his persona. His routines became a lot more insightful and began to focus on more serious subjects such as the government and politics.
In 1960, Carlin formed a duo with fellow comic Jack Burns; they worked together and released an album, called ‘Burns and Carlin at the Playboy Club Tonight.’ ‘Burns and Carlin’ attracted the attention of the legendary Lenny Bruce. Bruce helped Burns and Carlin secure appearances on The Tonight Show with Jack Paar. However the two eventually did split up but Carlin continued to make appearances on the tonight show with Johnny Carson. Carlin continued as a solo stand-up comedian and began to receive a lot of attention from audiences all over due to his very courageous style of comedy.
As he aged, Carlin did become more bitter and cynical and once again changed his stage persona in a profound way. This intrigued his audiences and therefore resulted in him being noted as one of the most acclaimed and enjoyed by the public and critics as of 2014.

* Examples of his work
George Carlin, during his comedy career, has had many successful performances. These consist of, ‘Life is worth loosing’, ‘Jammin in new York’, ‘Complaints and grievances’ and many more. However the one performance which he is most eminently known for has to be his, ‘Seven dirty words’ from his very famous monologue, ‘7 things you can never say on television,’ in 1972. Carlin was actually arrested for this particular performance although it did give his comedy career a real boost as it attracted many audiences, mostly the younger generation.

* Influences:
George Carlin is known to be a very unique and courageous comedian as he was never afraid to speak his mind. Although many would suggest that Carlin wasn’t really influenced by many comedians as his work was so different, it could be argued that he may have been inspired by comedians, Bill Hicks and Lenny Bruce. The reason why I think that Carlin was influenced by Bill Hicks is because there work is very similar. Both comedians’ work was known to be very controversial as both would discuss a wide range of social issues including religion, politics, and philosophy and often steep in dark comedy. Also Carlin was quite fond of his work as he once said, quoted directly, ‘He had so much edgy promise.’ Similar to this, Lenny Bruce’s comedy focused a lot around political issues, religion and many other things, therefore I think that Carlin may have also been influenced by him.
Along with being influenced by very imposing comedians, Carlin himself has influenced many comedians of today. These include, John Stewart, Stephen Colbert, Bill Maher, Chris Rock, Lewis Black, Jay Leno and maybe even Louis CK. The reason why he may have influenced these people today is because due his bravery of speaking his mind on television, it has encouraged the comedians that we all admire today to be able to do that kind of thing and not be afraid to try out new techniques.

* How he performed:
During his performances, since the 1990’s, Carlin always dressed in full black clothing. This is because, in his book ‘brain droppings’ he expresses his dislike towards printed clothing. He believes that such clothing turns us into ‘walking billboards’. In all of his HBO specials, he wore simple plain colored clothing. Later on he wore them all black. I personally think black clothing gave him a good contrast over his white skin and simple nature of clothing increased more focus towards his act.
Whilst performing, Carlin uses his hands a lot and moves about on the stage. This allows the audience to follow up on what he is doing and also it doesn’t bore them. Although Carlin did not use costume or makeup like other comedians, he used government and politics and real life situations which intrigued the audience even more. This is because the situations and the topics that Carlin would discuss through his monologues would make the audience think about those things and allow them to relate to them.
I think that this was a very good technique used by Carlin as he would continue to speak his mind and preform his acts but still at the same time get the audience involved mentally instead of physically.

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